If you're coaching clients on the go or jumping into a session between meetings, the last thing you need is a blinding white screen at 11 PM or tiny text that's hard to read mid-call. Coachful's mobile app ships with dark mode support and a range of accessibility settings so you can tailor the experience to your eyes, your environment, and your workflow — on both iOS and Android.
This guide covers everything: how to enable dark mode, how to adjust text size and contrast, and how to make sure your clients can do the same on their end.
TL;DR — Quick answers
- Dark mode: follows your device system theme by default, or you can override it inside the Coachful app settings.
- Text size: inherits your device's accessibility text-size setting; you can also adjust it in-app on supported screens.
- High contrast & reduced motion: controlled via your device's OS accessibility menu — Coachful respects those OS-level flags automatically.
- Screen reader support: VoiceOver (iOS) and TalkBack (Android) are supported across core navigation flows.
How Coachful's mobile app works on iOS and Android
Coachful's mobile experience is delivered in two ways: a progressive web app (PWA) at app.coachful.co, and a native shell app built with Capacitor, available through the mobile gateway at app.coachful.co/mobile. Both surfaces share the same core UI, which means appearance settings you change in one place carry across your session consistently.
The native shell on iOS and Android gives Coachful deeper hooks into the operating system — which is exactly why system-level accessibility preferences like dark mode, bold text, and reduced motion work automatically when you have them enabled in your device settings. You don't need to configure anything in Coachful for those to take effect.
That said, Coachful also includes its own in-app appearance override for cases where you want the app to behave differently from your phone's global theme — for example, keeping the app in dark mode even when your OS is in light mode during the day.
Enabling dark mode in the Coachful mobile app
There are two ways to turn on dark mode: letting the app follow your device, or forcing it manually inside Coachful.
Option 1 — Follow your device system theme (default)
By default, Coachful matches whatever theme your device is running. If your phone is set to dark mode, Coachful will be dark. Switch your phone to light mode and Coachful follows. This is the recommended setting for most users because it means the app adapts automatically to time-of-day schedules you may have set in your OS.
- On iOS: go to Settings → Display & Brightness → Appearance and choose Dark. Coachful updates immediately on next launch or app refresh.
- On Android: go to Settings → Display → Dark theme and toggle it on. Some Android skins label this "Night mode" or "Dark mode" — the path varies slightly by manufacturer.
Option 2 — Override the theme inside Coachful
To set Coachful's appearance independently of your device theme:
- Open the Coachful app and tap your profile avatar in the bottom navigation bar or top-right corner.
- Tap Settings (the gear icon).
- Under the Appearance section, tap Theme.
- Choose from System default, Light, or Dark.
- The app re-renders immediately — no restart required.
Your selection is saved to your account profile, so it persists across devices and reinstalls. If you log in on a different phone or switch from the PWA to the native app, your chosen theme follows you.
Pro tip: Coaches who run evening group calls often set Coachful to Dark permanently so the app never flips bright during a live session when they share their screen. Your clients see your screen in whatever lighting mode your device broadcasts — so dark mode can reduce eye strain for everyone on the call.
Text size and readability settings
Coachful's mobile app uses dynamic type on iOS and scalable text on Android, meaning it respects your OS-level font size preferences out of the box. If you've already bumped up text size in your device accessibility settings, Coachful's UI scales with it.
Adjusting text size at the OS level
- iOS: Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Larger Text. Drag the slider to your preferred size. Coachful supports sizes up to the "Accessibility sizes" range.
- Android: Settings → Accessibility → Font size (or Display size on some devices). Increasing the font size here scales text inside Coachful proportionally.
Bold text
On iOS, enabling Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Bold Text applies system-wide bold weight, and Coachful's typography layer picks this up automatically. Navigation labels, task titles in your coaching programs, and chat message previews will all render in the bolder weight.
In-app text adjustments
In certain long-form content areas — like program lesson pages, blog posts published through your Coachful website, and resource library documents — you'll see a text size toggle (Aa) in the top-right corner of the content view. Tap it to cycle through small, medium, and large reading sizes. This is independent of your OS settings and persists per content type.
Did you know? Coaches building structured programs on Coachful can include rich lesson content — videos, PDFs, checklists, and embedded resources — all of which render inside the same mobile reader with full text-size support. Your clients get a polished reading experience whether they're on desktop or mobile.
High contrast, reduced motion, and other OS accessibility flags
Coachful's mobile app is built to honor the full suite of OS-level accessibility preferences. You don't need to configure these inside Coachful — just set them on your device and the app respects them automatically.
Increase contrast
On iOS, enabling Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Increase Contrast shifts Coachful's color palette to higher-contrast alternatives. Buttons, card borders, and input fields all gain more defined edges. On Android, Settings → Accessibility → Color and motion → High contrast text achieves a similar effect.
Reduce motion
Coachful uses subtle animations for screen transitions, loading states, and notification badges. If these cause discomfort — particularly for users sensitive to motion — enable Reduce Motion on your device:
- iOS: Settings → Accessibility → Motion → Reduce Motion
- Android: Settings → Accessibility → Color and motion → Remove animations
With reduce motion on, Coachful switches to fade transitions instead of slide animations and disables looping micro-animations in the dashboard feed.
Color filters and display accommodations
For users with color vision deficiencies, iOS's Color Filters (Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Color Filters) and Android's Color correction modes apply at the GPU level, meaning every pixel Coachful renders goes through the filter. This is the most reliable approach for full-app color adjustment.
Screen reader support (VoiceOver and TalkBack)
Coachful's core navigation flows — signing in, browsing your program, viewing tasks, reading messages in a squad, and joining a session — include accessibility labels and ARIA roles so that VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android can describe what's on screen.
To activate a screen reader:
- iOS VoiceOver: Settings → Accessibility → VoiceOver → toggle on. Or add it to Accessibility Shortcut for triple-click activation.
- Android TalkBack: Settings → Accessibility → TalkBack → toggle on.
Once active, you can navigate Coachful by swiping through focusable elements. Buttons read their labels, form fields announce their placeholder text, and program task completion checkboxes announce their checked/unchecked state.
Note: HD video sessions powered by Stream render in a native video container. Video controls (mute, camera, leave call) are labeled and focusable, but some advanced layout features like participant grids may have limited screen reader narration in complex multi-person calls. We're actively improving coverage here.
Helping your clients configure their accessibility settings
As a coach, you may have clients who benefit from these settings but don't know they exist. A few things you can do:
- Share this guide — you can copy the URL of this article and paste it into a squad message or a welcome task inside your program.
- Add an onboarding task — in your program's Week 1 setup, add a task like "Set up the Coachful app on your phone" and link to this page. Coaches on Coachful can create tasks with rich text and external links inside any program day.
- Mention it in your intake call — if you know a client has visual impairment or prefers dark interfaces, walk them through the theme setting during your first session. Coachful's built-in intake call scheduling makes it easy to book that first touchpoint.
Client preferences — including theme overrides — are stored per account, so once a client sets their preference, it stays set. They won't need to reconfigure after updates or app reinstalls.
Troubleshooting common dark mode and accessibility issues
Dark mode isn't applying even though my phone is in dark mode
First, check that Coachful's in-app theme is set to System default (not forced to Light). Go to Profile → Settings → Appearance → Theme and confirm. If it's already on System default, try force-quitting the app and reopening. On rare occasions the OS theme signal doesn't fire until the app relaunches.
Text is too small even after I increased the font size in my OS settings
Make sure you've saved your OS accessibility settings and fully restarted the Coachful app — not just backgrounded it. Coachful reads the dynamic type configuration at launch. Also check that you haven't hit the PWA browser wrapper in some edge cases; the native shell app from app.coachful.co/mobile has the most reliable dynamic type support compared to an older browser shortcut you may have pinned.
The app looks different on my tablet vs. my phone
Coachful's mobile layout is optimized for phone-sized screens. On tablets, the PWA or native shell may render a wider layout that uses different component sizing. Theme and accessibility preferences still apply, but some spacing and font-size ratios are adjusted for the larger canvas.
Animations are still playing after I turned on Reduce Motion
Force-close the app entirely and reopen it. The reduce motion flag is read at session start. If animations persist after a fresh launch, check whether you're using the PWA in a browser rather than the native Capacitor app — some browser environments don't pass the OS motion preference flag through to web content. Download the native app from app.coachful.co/mobile for the most consistent behavior.
Screen reader is skipping over some buttons in the dashboard
We're continuously auditing our component library for accessibility coverage. If you find a specific element that VoiceOver or TalkBack skips or mislabels, please report it via Settings → Help → Send feedback inside the app. Include the screen name and the action you were trying to perform — our team investigates all accessibility reports.
My client says the app looks different from what I'm describing
Remember that theme, text size, and contrast settings are per-account and per-device. Your client may be on a different theme mode or OS text size. Walk them through Profile → Settings → Appearance together during a session call, or share this article in a squad message so they can self-serve.
Best practices for coaches running accessible programs
Accessibility isn't just about toggle settings — it shapes the entire experience your clients have with your coaching content. A few habits that make a real difference:
- Use high-contrast colors in your program graphics. When you upload cover images or task thumbnails inside your Coachful program, avoid light-gray text on white backgrounds. Your content renders on both light and dark themes, so test it in both.
- Caption your video content. If you embed recorded sessions or instructional videos in program tasks, add captions. Tools like YouTube's automatic captions or Rev.com make this straightforward.
- Write descriptive task titles. "Day 3: Reflection journal prompt — 10 minutes" is more useful to a screen reader and a client with cognitive accessibility needs than "Task 3".
- Keep squad messages concise. Long unbroken paragraphs in chat are hard to follow in any theme. Use line breaks and short sentences — especially important for clients who use text-to-speech to listen to messages.
Coaches on Coachful who invest in accessible content design report higher program completion rates. When every client — regardless of visual ability or device preference — can navigate your program without friction, they stay engaged longer and get better results.
Ready to create a more accessible coaching experience?
Dark mode and accessibility settings are small details that add up to a significantly better experience — for you and every client in your programs. The fact that Coachful's mobile app respects OS-level preferences means most of this works automatically, without any extra setup on your part. And for the settings that do require a few taps, you now know exactly where to find them.
If you're not yet running your coaching business on Coachful, now is a great time to explore what the platform can do. From structured coaching programs and real-time squad messaging to built-in scheduling and Stripe-powered billing, everything is designed to reduce your admin load and keep your clients engaged. Start your free trial at coachful.co — no charge during the 7-day free trial — credit card required at signup, cancel anytime in one click — and see how much easier client management can be. Already have an account? Sign in to your Coachful workspace and explore the mobile settings today.